William Nylander, Maple Leafs handle Kraken

William Nylander scored two goals and the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the visiting Seattle Kraken 4-1 on Thursday night.

Auston Matthews added a goal and an assist and Matthew Knies scored a goal for the Maple Leafs, who have won two in a row. John Tavares had two assists.

Toronto goaltender Joseph Woll made 24 saves in his second start and first victory of the season.

Eeli Tolvanen scored for Seattle. Joey Daccord stopped 25 shots for the Kraken, who are 1-1-0 to open a five-game road trip.

Seattle’s Oliver Bjorkstrand hit the right goal post with a 23-foot wrist shot at 13:20 of the first period.

Knies scored his sixth goal of the season on a 12-foot snap shot with five seconds to go in the first. Matthews started the play from a faceoff in the left circle with a pass to Mitchell Marner, who fed Knies for the easy goal. It was the fifth goal in six games for Knies.

Nylander struck at 1:39 of the second period on a 12-foot shot from the left side of the goal. Morgan Rielly made the pass from the right circle after Tavares fed him the puck.

At the 9:24 mark of the second, Nylander scored his eighth of the season, again from the left edge of the goal from seven feet out. He converted a pass from Tavares, who was on his knees. Max Pacioretty did the work along the boards to start the sequence.

Tolvanen hit the left post at 16:06 of the second.

Toronto came close to extending the lead when Max Domi hit the crossbar with his shot during a power play at 9:12 of the third period.

Seattle removed Daccord for an extra attacker with more than five minutes to play in the third period. It paid off when Tolvanen got the Kraken on the board at 16:32, his fourth goal of the year.

Matthews (No. 5 of the year) scored into an empty net on a long shot that he banked off the boards at 18:17.

Seattle’s Brandon Montour (paternity leave) did not play. He scored three goals in an 8-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday.

Toronto is 6-1-0 all-time against Seattle.